Minding Life is FREE and open to all interested members of the public. Profiles of our panelists and speakers are available here.

Cognitive Biology in Bonn

‘Plant neurobiology’ may sound like a misnomer but it’s a
very serious collection of cell biologists and molecular botanists spread
around the globe who are studying complex plant behaviour mediated by
sensory signals. At the invitation of Dr. Frantisek Baluska, Institute of
Cellular and Molecular Botany at the University of Bonn and editor of the plant
neurobiology journal, ARC Postdoctoral Fellow Pamela Lyon gave a paper at the
university’s Biology Colloquium in December (Stayin’ alive: Why organisms need cognition (or something very like it)).
We hope this is the beginning of ongoing research links with the plant
neurobiology group at Bonn. For more information, see the Society for Plant Neurobiology
website.

Cellular signalling is a key target for any theory of biological representation. This topic
is currently being pursued by Chief Investigator Jon Opie, who has been working
on a new approach to cognitive representation with his colleague Gerard O’Brien over the past
five years. O'Brien and Opie's papers can be found here.